Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow mesmers! I’ve been playing around with alot of different condi mesmer builds post dec 10. patch in tpvp and this one so far takes the cake for me.

Note: Before anybody says it, YES, there is potential that someone else has posted this EXACT same build before me, but i haven’t see it, so i figured i’d throw it out there. If i missed any important information/call outs to the proper people for builds, please let me know and i will edit it in.

Condi Mesmer – Current Popular Builds
So far i’ve seen 2 popular methods people are choosing run the condition mesmer, namely being the countless build (clone death), and blackwater build (PU).

-Countless’ build i used all the time prior to the new patch, and enjoyed it to some degree. It utilized extremely high crit chance (rampager) with sword/pistol and staff. The idea is to start the fight off very similarly to a shatter build. Duelist, stun, leap and blurred frenzy, followed by massive clone generation/death to build up the condi’s. I found it to be a bit too squishy, and i didn’t like how the sword felt for damage (used to shatter damage, felt really lack lusture). The nice thing about it was that the sword DID provide decent defense to melee burst classes (thieves, mesmers, etc).
-Black Water/PU builds never really turned my crank. They’re trolly, have a hard time holding a node, and imo provide very little to group fights. They are EXTREMELY strong in duels, and annoying as F to play against, but not really my style.

Strength’s and Weakness’ of Condi Mesmers
Depending on how you gear yourself, a condition mesmer can be EXTREMELY slippery, very difficult to pin down or kill and very strong in duels. This comes fairly naturally using a staff, and even more so if you choose to run a rabid amulet. The difficulty a condi mesmer faces is in the lack of potential condition burst, as alot of our condi applying abilities stack random conditions. This was the focus on my condi mesmer build – attempt to get the highest amount of burst condi damamge without sacrificing survivability and functionality.

DirtyBird’s TPvP Condi Build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAraWnUEVUbUNa1wWbExkigD5Qp468uSPwtc7CB-TsAAzCpIKSVkrITRyisFN+Y9xcBA

There are 3 main features with this build:
1) Very solid cooldown reductions via Duelist discipline, Chaotic Dampening, and Illusionist Celerity.
- Once you get used to having such low cooldowns, its hard to go back! it just feels soooo nice. This along with energy sigils allows you to play the build in a “clone death” style fashion with massive ability to generate and kill clones extremely quickly, proccing Debilitating Dissipation and Confusing Combatants. It also allows you to generate your heavy hitting phantasms more readily.
2) Phantasm buffs via Phantasmal Haste and Phantasmal Fury. Duelist is a huge part of your burst potential, with ~80% crit chance at first summon, your bound to get 6-8 bleed stacks and some good str8 up dps. Warlock is good dps throughout the fight as well.
3) Confusion damage traited via Master of Misdirection, and Confusing combatants.

Rotation
I always start a fight in scepter/pistol.
1) get the duelist up and firing
2) magic bullet
3) confusing images
4) Illusionary counter

By this time they should have about 6-8 bleed stacks, 3-5 confusion stacks, and 5 tormet stacks.

5) Burn your dodges, swap to staff (proccing DD)
6) Chaos storm + phase retreat for the armor (Chaos Armor + DD)
7) Warlock
8) Chaos armor (when it dies down)
9) Burn dodges ( MOAR DD!!)
10) You may want to null field at this point if they have boons to strip and get another chaos armor out of the deal. If you chose to do this you can pretty much keep chaos armor up for the first 15-20 seconds of combat.
11) Swap to scepter pistol and repeat.

F2 & F3 can be used to increase condi spike, or to interrupt a heal. Staff clones also provide a nice source of bleeds, so as mentioned, try to have staff clones out over scepter.

Group Synergy/Role
This build really isnt the strongest for group synergy. The best thing you can provide for larger fights is single target focusing, invis res/stomps, distortion res/stomps, null fields, and some spattered condi’s via clone death. I like to run this build as a roaming style build. It is also fairly effective at camping points. If you choose to tank points, you may want to look at Sensitox’s build, it sacrifices a little bit of condi spike for more survivability:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Sensotix-Mesmer-Condi-TPvP-After-Patch-Build/first#post3385423

Weaknesses of the Build
The most glaring (and infuriating imo, thanks anet for this one) issues you face as a condi mesmer is condition immunity. Personally i think its sort of horse kittenhat this was introduced into player’s trait lines (engi, ele, & warrior with zerker) but it can pose a very real kink in your build. This is why i choose to run the signet of ether. Your only real answer to condi immunity is through phantasms doing as MUCH damage as possible (duelist). If you see an engi or ele not taking any damage from your condi’s, get a mindwrack off and start pumping out the duelists ASAP and try to fight away from the duelists so they don’t die. With warriors just wait out the zerker, even if you have to lose the node let him decap and kill him after his stupid buff is down.

Final Notes:
1) Do your best to never be auto attacking with the scepter. Its just god aweful and limp. The clones it generates are not nearly as good as staff clones. Quite literally view scepter/pistol as buttons 2-5 and swap out asap.
2) Healing skills… Ether feast is a better defensive healing skill by far. Lower cooldown and better heal. Signet of Ether is a stronger choice for offensive options, as it allows you to create 2 duelists. Swap these guys out depending on who you are playing against. If you are playing 2+ warriors/engi’s use the signet. If not, id suggest using ether feast. TBH both work fine.
3) Always strive to work on your burst condi damage. To get really good at this style, it should not be sufficient to just win the fight (you usually win duels), you want to win the fight as FAST as possible.

Love to hear your guys’ feedback!
Cheers

That build looks like it’s intended to be a side bunker / group support. However, that means it may likely run into a roamer thief or warrior, or a far point spirit ranger or MM necro. How does this build handle those?

I was playing a MM necro earlier and ran into a signet bunker mesmer and beat him down pretty handily. I don’t know what his build was.

Necros
Necros can be a very challenging fight, depending on their spec and build. MM necros specifically are becoming more frequent as the condi necro got squished. My success rate vs MM necros usually heavily depends on the healing skill you use – i am MUCH more successful with ether feast than i am with the signet. The trick to killing a necro is to remember they have very little sources of stun breaks – magic bullet and dazing allows you condi stack. But yea generally speaking this is a longass tough fight for sure.
If the necro is continually beating you (which happens, as mentioned this can be probably one of the toughest one-on-ones for sure) it may be best to roam off point and put pressure somewhere else. Necro’s are slow as hell and typically you can get back and back cap the moment he leaves. Dunno what to say Thedenofsin, your right MM builds are an uphill fight for sure if they know what they’re doing.

Warriors
as mentioned before warriors with zerker stance are irritating. You just have to avoid them while the stance is up and the rest is uaually cake. They quite often will kill themselves via killing your clones. I would say if you play it right warriors are one of the easiest fights to win.

Thieves
For the most part 90% of thieves i run into in pvp are not very good… and in general i have a very high success rate killing these guys. Be sure to stay in Chaos Storm or Chaos armor for a good chunk of the fight to proc the aegis. Use the energy sigils, phase retreat, decoy and scepter block to be evasive. REmember that if you start a channelled ability prior to the thief stealthing, the hit will connect regardless. This works very nicely with duelist and confusing images. But yea my phantasms usually chew thieves up extremely quickly.

Spirit Rangers
This can be pretty tough as well, similar to necros. I would rate this an easier fight than an MM necro currently. Ether feast is better than the signet for this one as well. Once again keep the confusion on them as much as possible. This counters their fast attack rate and does good dps. Another tip vs rangers is to be evasive in your movement – Once you have all your cooldowns off, switch to staff and play defensively. You usually win the attrition game. Note that null field is extremely effective vs warriors and rangers alike.

General Note
To be even better at dueling in this build, signet of domination and arcane thievery can be swapped for null field and blink/portal/decoy. Arcane thievery is amazeballs at stealing signet of fury from warriors and rampage as one from rangers + transfer of pin down and heavy condi abilities. Sig of dom + magic bullet + daze can paralyze an MM necro pretty effectively as well. I choose to run null field and portal for better roaming/group synergy though.

i’ve run this build and just a side not. celerity doesn’t stack with the duelist and chaotic dampening to make it 40% faster recharge on phantasm production. i know the duelist is still on a 16 s cd with 1 or both traits.

Which is why a lot of people just forgo the bottom 20 and put them some place else – tho the bugged phantasmal haste does happen to work for these 2 phantasms and these 2 phantasms only.

twity.4732:

i’ve run this build and just a side not. celerity doesn’t stack with the duelist and chaotic dampening to make it 40% faster recharge on phantasm production. i know the duelist is still on a 16 s cd with 1 or both traits.

Which is why a lot of people just forgo the bottom 20 and put them some place else – tho the bugged phantasmal haste does happen to work for these 2 phantasms and these 2 phantasms only.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionists_Celerity

You sure about that? Wiki might be wrong, but im pretty sure they do in fact stack. Will have to test this when i get home. Im 90% sure this puts the phantasms on a 12 second cooldown.

Yeah I’m sure. Now is it the intent of Anet to have it this way or just a bug, i’m not so sure., but it unfortunately definitely doesn’t stack.

I can’t remember if it stacked pre-patch. Does anyone remember if it did?

Its currently bugged… Try it again. Trait for both and watch the cooldowns after you cast the abilities. Hovering over will show your duelist having a 16 second recharge. Once you cast duelist, it goes on a 12 second recharge.

The cooldowns you achieve are as follows:
-10 second recharge on warlock
-12 second recharge on duelist
-5 second recharge on phase retreat
-8 second recharge on scepter block

Thedenofsin.7340:

That build looks like it’s intended to be a side bunker / group support. However, that means it may likely run into a roamer thief or warrior, or a far point spirit ranger or MM necro. How does this build handle those?

I was playing a MM necro earlier and ran into a signet bunker mesmer and beat him down pretty handily. I don’t know what his build was.

MM necros are pretty interesting along with Fetid Conditions and Flesh of the Master. Granted, even with increased health it can be hard to keep them alive long enough to pull conditions off of you.

So… if you’re up against an MM necro use your first burst to burn down a few of his minions.

twity.4732:

Yeah I’m sure. Now is it the intent of Anet to have it this way or just a bug, i’m not so sure., but it unfortunately definitely doesn’t stack.

I can’t remember if it stacked pre-patch. Does anyone remember if it did?

Did you test the skill itself or just the tooltip? The tooltips are bugged, in that they still show 16 seconds, but if you try actually casting it you’ll see it does in fact stack and you’ll get a 12-second recharge.

Helios.3598:

Thedenofsin.7340:

That build looks like it’s intended to be a side bunker / group support. However, that means it may likely run into a roamer thief or warrior, or a far point spirit ranger or MM necro. How does this build handle those?

I was playing a MM necro earlier and ran into a signet bunker mesmer and beat him down pretty handily. I don’t know what his build was.

MM necros are pretty interesting along with Fetid Conditions and Flesh of the Master. Granted, even with increased health it can be hard to keep them alive long enough to pull conditions off of you.

So… if you’re up against an MM necro use your first burst to burn down a few of his minions.

Great advice! Thanks Helios will try that method out. Is there any particular minion you would suggest focusing down first?

Awesome on it being bugged!

So for condi, here are my suggestions:
1) Swap out the pistol for the torch. If you’re going for death by condi, the pistol really adds nothing to the conditions (unless your enemy is standing in a chaos storm letting the duelist shoot him). The torch gives you access to 2 more conditions, plus if traited will give you a condi clear. Then you can swap 10 of the traits in dueling for 10 in chaos to get Chaotic interupt for your f3 and chaos storm/armor. This will spam more conditions.
2) Swap out portal for arcane thievery. This skill I’ve found is just so useful all around. If your enemy pops a bunch of boons, you can steal them all. If they give you a bunch of conditions, you can give them back. The portal, while good for mobility and position I feel like doesn’t add too much for the build.
3) If you do the above, you can swap out dueling II for dueling I. This will give your blink a very far range to help reset fights, and then use dueling X for your 2nd trait.

Just my suggestions. It seems like this build is part condi, and part phantasms, but without the focus on either which could be a big weakness.

The strength in the duelist is the bleeds on crit. This adds huge dps pressure. Torch is nice but the phantasm associated is completely worthless. I’ve tried running torch and don’t like the feel of it at all. Duelist’s job is to continually keep high bleed stacks while the warlock provides good str8 up dps due to them having a variety of condi’s. The mix just seems to work well.

DirtyBird.6093:

The strength in the duelist is the bleeds on crit. This adds huge dps pressure. Torch is nice but the phantasm associated is completely worthless. I’ve tried running torch and don’t like the feel of it at all. Duelist’s job is to continually keep high bleed stacks while the warlock provides good str8 up dps due to them having a variety of condi’s. The mix just seems to work well.

Yeah that’s true! I was mostly thinking that if you were counting on your illusions to die that at least you wouldn’t be wasting a duelist and could use all 3 dodge clones for conditions. But very good point!

yeah duelist is heart and soul of build. 5 – 7 bleeds per unload and it’s unloading 20% faster

twity.4732:

Awesome on it being bugged!

Just to be clear, IC and a traited weapon are (and have been) working as intended, and they DO stack. The CD on the tooltip is incorrect, and has been wrong for a long time. Example:

Untraited / no IC pistol – 20 sec CD for iDuelist
Either IC OR pistol trait – 16 sec CD
Both – 12 sec CD

i would take 2 sigil of battle for more might stacks as with staff you have #2 skill and with vigor uptime you dont have to worry
also with 40% icd on phantasm skills i would take other heal skill with lower cd

messiah.1908:

i would take 2 sigil of battle for more might stacks as with staff you have #2 skill and with vigor uptime you dont have to worry
also with 40% icd on phantasm skills i would take other heal skill with lower cd

The energy sigils are extremely nice to proc more clones for clone death and condi’s via DD. And yea, the other heal is better in 65% of situations. I just don’t find myself having a hard time staying alive using the signet heal and having the option for dual duelists is really nice. Entirely up to you though.

Valarauka.2719:

twity.4732:

Yeah I’m sure. Now is it the intent of Anet to have it this way or just a bug, i’m not so sure., but it unfortunately definitely doesn’t stack.

I can’t remember if it stacked pre-patch. Does anyone remember if it did?

Did you test the skill itself or just the tooltip? The tooltips are bugged, in that they still show 16 seconds, but if you try actually casting it you’ll see it does in fact stack and you’ll get a 12-second recharge.

this is really interesting
good to know